Andor woke up stared at by white haired children. Jumping from his sleep, the kids moved backwards as he leaned up. White linen covered the sky and ten ground around him, and he could smell flowers and fresh water somewhere close.

A women with a pot and spatula in her hand opened the window of the tent. "Get out now!" She hissed.

Andor reached for his bag that he had laid behind him in the dead of night. He was ready to run for it before this woman beat him to death with her spatula.

The kids rushed out, whispering to themselves. None of them felt too guilty for trying to get a peak into the outside world.

"Not you, sir, you can rest for as long as you want," the woman reassured him. The loose fabric of her dress drifted with the tent. It was hard to tell what reality was, or if he was still dreaming.

Right now his best guess was a dream because he had never been called sir in his life.

He nodded his head yes quickly, which was the closest thing to thank you he could manage.

The woman left. Now Andor has been left with his bag and still half damp hair from the rain. No idea or guesses to who this tribe of people were or what they were, he didn't know how to react.

Andy, as always, was precautious. Allyssa was just glad that she didn't have to go back and could procrastinate getting in trouble by Mot. Andor decided that for once he would have to be the one with instincts.

He shoved his coat into his bag due to the heavy humidity and the urge to leave as quick as possible. He couldn't be sure how many days had been wasted resting and he didn't know a lot about travel, but he did know a lot about tyrant kings - they aren't patient.

He pulled back the tent. The sunlight hit him like a laser, and everything could only be pale white until his vision adjusted.

Heat rolled off the sand under him and up into the sky where it hit the sun. It was a subtle change from the jungle, it was dry. Still he could smell a spring and the green of plants, and it had gotten even stronger.

Everyone had hair like the sun here, even the young and old. It was white or gold or silver. Something that night never seemed to touch - other than possibly moonlight. Still, he couldn't tell what or who these people were. The only thing he knew about the people of Mianite is that Hope was one of them.

She was probably furious at this moment.

"Andor!" A voice grabbed his attention.

He turned to see Andy who was dodging desert stones with her long legs. She knotted her hair up even higher, and her sleeves had been rolled the whole way up.

He met her halfway there so they could talk and not shout because it was rude.

"What's happening?" He asked, which had been a question on in his mind since age ten. This time he could get answers.

"Elves." Andy said.

Andor didn't stare at the pale hair or bows anymore. They were as plentiful as grass in this tribe, and as it made sense it became less noticeable.

"Right. I know. How couldn't we have guessed it." Andy persisted.

Although, Andor wasn't questioning himself for once.

Andy squinted her eyes at everything more than the average person would due to the sunlight and reflective ground. Her lips were tort together, and her eyebrows arched.

"I'm getting a weird vibe from these people," she stated.

Andor looked out, trying to follow instinct. What Hope described as that fact you knew from your stomach and heart, not your brain.

Children threw pales of water at each other. Some planted potted flowers. Others folded clothes, and some were simply sunbathing like lizards. He even spotted a batch of the tribe cooking.

"You're getting a bad feeling from the tribe of elves?"

"Yes." Andy answered.

"Aren't elves peaceful unless provoked," Andor said. That was a fact he knew from his head.

Andy's arms crossed, not happy with Andor's fact. "Well then they seemed provoked."

Andor glared at Andy. Most of the time being angry at someone made him more upset than that being angry actually had in the first place, but this was Andy and she was being ridiculous.

Suddenly Allyssa plowed through them both and rushed off with another bunch of teenagers.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Andy screamed.

Allyssa pointed to an open fire. "Food!"

Andor suddenly noticed the smell of food, something savory with vegetables because that was the smell of green. It also tinged like something sour and sweet, and then something small and extra. He couldn't tell what, but something else was there.

Andor shrugged. "Why don't we grab food and leave then?"

He tried to suggest something that would make everyone happy, but Andy's expression wasn't slowly leaving into a happy smile.

"I'm not eating," she said, her arms still closed off. Her mood still closed off to the tribe that had saved them.

"Fine," Andor let out with a sigh, a tinge of anger stuck in his voice. Andy could notice. It surprised her.

"Have fun!" He said, and walked away to follow Allyssa. Half to make sure she wouldn't brake anything and another half to get him food.

Andy stood in silence, watching Andor walk off with strangers. He seemed confident, but his confidence came with kindness and not with something that could keep him safe.

And she realized that, yes, the sarcasm in that "have fun" was intended by the most polite person in the world, and it kinda stung.

I thought I was a goner there for a second. I really did. Like the dark grip of death had me by the legs and it's jaw was closing in on me-"

"-but then you started to talk about Star Wars and it spit you back out?"

Firstly, nerd culture is mainstream so she's truly making herself seem uncool by making fun of me, and secondly, in this metaphor the sharp teeth would have bitten down on me and crushed me before I could have been spit out.

"I get the allure of almost dying," I said, shouldering my bag into a comfortable position. "The whole life flashing before your eyes thing was pretty cool."

Hope glanced up to me in astonishment. Her eyebrows quirked. "Really?"

"-no your fucking insane. I thought I was going to die and it felt awful-"

Hope rolled her eyes at me, struggling to keep her feet at a steady pace. The bog's floor stuck to the bottom of our boots like velcro, and the humidity made my whole body creak and ache.

"I'm so over this stupid dank ass jungle." Hope winced as she pulled her foot out of another huge mud whole. "Mianite was never this bad"

"Yeah. We had pools of blood and counterfeit money instead of nice springs."

"I'm serious," she said. "Nature feels more upset than normal, like the world is flipping inwards on itself or Mother Nature tried this new cardio workout and it isn't helping!"

"I'm gonna go with the cardio workout because it's less scary."

The bog wasn't a great example of the beauty of the jungle. This area flooded during high tide and the sea water traveled this way, eventually sitting with the natural spring water that arose here. Because of that any fish that had once inhabited the bog was now dead and decaying, giving the area a nice rotting garbage smell. This then invited traveling insects like mosquitoes which bit the shit out of people until you were throughly over the outdoors.

Of course being over the outdoors wasn't an option in this world and especially at this point for Hope because she had lots of miles to go before she would reach Andor.

I didn't completely know what I signed up for when Tom informed me that Hope packed up to follow Andor to King Asshole's quarters, but where she went I followed. Most of the time when we split up it ended in fear demons and kidnappings. My gut told me not to flip the coin this go around.

"You know, for having a sociopathic father your boyfriend sure is optimistic."

Hope deeply sighed in some of that nice, nice bog air. "You're telling me."

"It's almost inhuman how mentally stable he is," I echoed practically the same thing we had been saying since we met the kid.

"Yeah," she got out. She lingered on a thought and then swatted it away because it was ridiculous.

To be fair I was thinking it too.

I changed the subject to something else that had been gnawing at my brain. "Do you think he'll try to save Sonja?"

Hope continued to stare at the muddy ground. "He's not stupid."

"Yeah, but he loves you a stupid amount and you love Sonja a stupid amount."

"Stop making me paranoid!" She snapped. The air seemed to get even more humid and thick around me.

"Sorry," I apologized. I didn't need to bring anything more up. She probably already thought of it.

"Liberty's girlfriend had helped him pack I guess," Hope said, her voice as quiet as a dim lightbulb. Her eyes were squeezed together like she had a headache.

"The dark haired one."

"The hot one, yeah."

At least she said it for me.

"Hope. I told you already he loves you a stupid amount-"

"What?! No!" She snapped her head back to stare at me. "I'm not jealous or anything like that, really, she just creeps me out."

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"I don't know," Hope answered. "I just thought about her."

The cicadas covered up most of the silence, but the weight of the air around me told me something had to be off. There was more of a reason she was upset. She knew Andor would be gone, but -

"I thought Liberty would have told me he was going with Andor, ya know," she continued in a whisper. She held her backpack strap close to her chest. "We Just we're starting to get along a lot, and I liked having him around."

"He seems a lot like you."

"He is like me. We do all the same stupid shit, but he also knows how to quit and take things seriously and be mature." Her voice almost cracked on the last word. She had her bag cradled to her side at this point. "He made me start to feel at home with them."

I caught up with her, now walking beside her. I kept my vision ahead so I wouldn't stare, but I could still smell the salt of tears in the air.

"They were rushed off Hope, it's fine. I mean we killed death. What else is going to try to step in our path?"

She stopped. I could here her feet stomp to the ground behind me.

I glanced over to her. Her face became pale, tears still staining her rose cheeks but her eyes wide, staring out at the jungle.

"Andy was with them and she's pretty smart so-"

"Shhh!" Hope hissed out at me. Her vision still a straight missal strike ahead.

I crinkled my eyebrows at her, and then stared at her direction. Instead of gaining clarity I became more confused.

One of those god forsaken cabbage patch dolls were sitting in front of us, right in the middle of the bog.

Almost forgot about them, didn't you?

Our plan was unknown. We hadn't prepared an escape route for ... scary possessed doll blocking path.

"I thought we burned them all?" I said.

"Guess not," Hope answered.

Suddenly a blood curdling scream struck through the bog like lighting. Our heads turned backwards to look in the direction of the noise. The voices familiar tones were stomach racking to the both of us.

I turned back around. Every hair in my arm stood up, and stress and fear rang through my ears.

The doll disappeared.

The stool I was sitting on had one bolt loose on it.

I tried to fix it earlier, asking Mot and Dianite if they had seen any tools, but they couldn't find anything without bothering Faith and she was too busy.

Tucker tossed and turned around a lot, throwing his blankets off a couple of time. Sometimes he kicked at the backboard, and sometimes he covered his face with his sunburnt arms like his head was being attacked by an animal.

I guessed this had to be vengeance for all of those times I got black out drunk on him.

The infirmary only housed one window which beamed down straight to the beds that the nurses put Tucker and Jordan in, which meant I was stuck in constant sunlight. That would have been great, if I was a cat and not a man who sweats to cool down.

It was getting too damn hot in that crockpot they called a room, so I left for a moment to go get a glass of water.

When I came back Tucker had woken up from a god damn coma like it was a nap, and was ready to jump out of bed.

"Tom!" His eyes were huge, like a mad man. He reminded me of Jordan.

"Sit the fuck down!" I yelled out, the water almost slipping out of my hand. "You cannot pass out again."

Half of me was joking. The other half felt as if I had to paste him to that bed. When he found out Hope and Jordan went to King Ragnar where Sonja was he would loose it.

"No, Tom!" He stood up on the floor and grabbed me with a strong grip on the shoulders before I could tell him to lay down again.

I payed attention. No devious smile turned up on his face. He wasn't joking.

"I saw what Hope saw," he let out slowly. His eyes darted around my face, trying to comprehend what he had dreamt and woken up too. "I saw the movie that she was living."

I shook my head. It was no time for him to be speaking like he was a parable. "I'm sorry? What the hell are you on?"

"The dreams Hope had. She always saw that girl," he explained.

I nodded my head, remembering that detail.

"I saw her."

The words hit like a pile of bricks. When his tongue rolled out on the last syllable I felt my whole body stop. Something felt strange and wrong about her.

"Was she hot?" I asked.

I expected for Tucker to scream at me so I could lessen the importance of the situation, but that didn't happen.

"Yeah, actually," he said, backing up. His shoulders straight, he was out from the trance he had been locked into from Hope's brain. "It was Liberty's girlfriend."

I don't understand. I didn't get it out. My throat was too dry.

"Liberty's girlfriend was the one in the dream, except she had black hair," he started to ramble on again. "And her skin was pale as paper and she could move these flames up taller and taller and smoke floated around her and I swear I saw Furia with her as she stared out into this black abyss-"

Pale paper skin and black hair. It reminded me of Lucy who glowed annoyingly like the actual sun. It made me remember Lucy's story.

"Night," I let out. "Wasn't that a thing? Couldn't that be a thing?"

"And it turned into the darkness -" Tucker remembered too. "That's what scared the shit out of Sonja in Ruxomar."

Suddenly everything clicked, and that puzzle piece that we had been jamming into the wrong spot finally fit. Lucy didn't tell us that long ass tale so we could know again we were the "Heroes of Mianite". She told us that so we were familiar with the darkness before she became familiar with us.

I dropped the glass of water in my hand. The pieces shattered into clear snowflakes in the ground, and the water beaded through the cracks of the floor to the door.

"Fuck."

Andy sat in the desert sand, waiting for the inevitable to happen. As glares were shot at her and eyes pulled away, she could feel deeper and deeper in her gut that she shouldn't have let them go to eat.

Most of everyone had gone to bed as the sun peaked down at the edge of the dunes, a purple cast shedding through the sky. As the shadows the tents cast got shorter, more and more people left the area. They thinned out - like pulling weeds. Even Allyssa and Andor had gotten to sleep, and if someone stuck around as long as her -

- well, she would have a problem.

Exactly that happened. Exactly what her gut had told her. Two men stayed behind, limber, huge, bitter, and extremely hungry. Just like her.

Although the demeanor of these men was only selfish and moderately intelligent at best, they had one thing in common with Andy - they didn't eat, which seems bizarre for being in a tribe. Especially when said tribe makes a meal for everyone.

And then the cook arrived to consort with them, and it all made sense.

They whispered to one another, and Andy watched from the shadows that grew bigger as the night grew thicker. The humidity of the situation moved with the humidity of the air as the cook started to point to the tent that Andy had been staying in. At the tent that Allyssa and Andor were in.

She held out a flower. A lily of some kind, with a dark middle and white petals flowering out. It stayed as mostly decoration around the tribe, but it seemed like this motley crew had used it for something else. The cook pointed to the flour that she used to make the bread almost everybody had eaten.

The cook had laced the food - as if Andy hadn't already figured it out.

But what Andy didn't know is why they would want to have Andor or Allyssa at their fingertips, or what they were going to do with them.

That's why Andy left herself hungry. That's why she watched.

The men left for the tent. Their bulky figure made their steps heavy. Strong and fit, but heavy. Andor stood still in the tent, Allyssa knocked out cold. The poison must have been a sleeping potion of some sort. The closest thing the elves could get to poison in the middle of the desert.

Andy went to leap out from the shadows, but she hesitated. Elves didn't have any weapons other than bows, and a tribe like this wouldn't know how to use anything else.

It became a fun game to wonder how the hell they were planning try to kill him.

Both men stomped out of the tent, tripping on sand and only Ianite knows what else. One had Andor by his legs and the other cradling his head, hauling him off away at a good speed of one mile per hour.

Andy only had to follow at a brisk jog. The cook and the two men were preoccupied with Andor, so Allyssa would be safe. She could cut them off here before they could go back.

A few yards out, in the dead of the night where only the cicadas and howling wind could be heard, they dropped his sleeping body down in a dune.